Garden Furniture with Historical Insight
Beautiful homes and gardens often reflect interests and tastes developed through lives well-lived and well-travelled. From rigorously minimal terraces to lushly planted garden rooms, this lecture will look at styles accommodate the kind of unique combination of silhouettes, scale, and materials that are hallmarks of memorable spaces.
John will present a richly illustrated historic timeline taking trends in materials, technology, and stylistic influences – beginning with the Medieval Turf Seat, following the evolution through the iconic Windsor Chair, Thomas Jefferson’s designs, for Monticello, there ubiquitous “McYellow” benches for McDonald’s, and right up to the latest in 3-D printing.
John Danzer will also examine how furniture works within the landscape and how to make appropriate, lasting choices— whether for a private garden, a historic estate, or a public space.
“Perhaps no person has thought more deeply about extending good
design to the outside of the home than John Danzer.”
Albert Hadley, American Interior Designer (1920 – 2012)
About John Danzer
John Danzer’s foray into garden furniture design began as a hobby. A researcher from an earlier career in international finance, John studied historic gardens where appropriate furnishings and their placement were integral to a garden’s design. Amassing an archive of over 9,000 images from gardens and collections worldwide, John became the sought-after speaker on garden furniture design history, lecturing at the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum, the Victoria and Albert Museum, the Garden Museum (London), and the New York Botanical Garden.
35 years ago, John founded Munder-Skiles, which today produces 150+ designs in woods, metals, rattan, and all-weather wicker, from historic to modern. In 1994, John discovered America’s oldest wooden garden bench from a house called Almodington, and the same year won the Roscoe Award for best designed American chair — the Taconic chair. Munder-Skiles was honored with a 10-year retrospective by The New York School of Interior Design call Reinventing the Garden Seat in 1997.
For 7 years, John directed full 3D drawing documentation and replacement of 28 key garden furniture designs at Dumbarton Oaks. Munder-Skiles has researched and built furniture for The Mount, Montgomery Place, Mount Vernon, and Monticello. He is a founding Fellow of the Garden Conservancy and serves on the Advisory Council of the Cultural Landscape Foundation, the Design Committee of Manitoga, and the Advisory Board of the Wharton Esherick House Museum. In 2022, John Danzer / Munder-Skiles won the Arthur Ross Award for Artisanship and Craftsmanship from the Institute of Classical Architecture & Art — the first Arthur Ross Award ever given for furniture design.
$35.00 for ICAA members.
$50.00 for Non-Members.
Ancient Moderne
John Danzer